Guv takes review meeting of VCs

The Governor of Uttarakhand, Baby Rani Maurya, has directed the Vice Chancellors (VC) of the universities of the State that they should ensure that the students are provided the mark sheets and certificates within one month of declaration of results. She was taking the tri-monthly review of the functioning of universities with their VCs at Raj Bhawan on Monday. She told the officials that an Action Taken Report (ATR) on all issues discussed should be submitted to the Raj Bhawan within one month. In the meeting, she expressed concern on the fact that only 60-65 percent admissions are being taken in the institutes of technical education.

On a stern note, she said that the affiliations of all such colleges should be checked stringently who are not meeting the standards. On the contentious issue related to PhD in the Uttarakhand Technical University (UTU), the VC said that the final investigation should be submitted within 15 days to her office. She also stressed the need for strictly following the norms of UGC for PhD.

The Governor said that the universities should start courses on Cyber security. She was informed that a total of 8,000 students are enrolled in cyber security course in Uttarakhand Open University. The Governor took information about installation of solar power plant, water harvesting techniques and sanitation campaigns.

She said that for water heating, the use of solar energy should be made compulsory.

The Governor said that the Agriculture universities should focus on technical help to the farmers so that the income of farmers can be made double. The Minister of State for higher education, Dhan Singh Rawat, said that the Almora University would be made residential university and a seminar on innovations and quality education in higher education would soon be organised. The union HRD Minister, Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’, would also participate in the seminar.